1. Field
The illustrative embodiments relate to a game system and a storage medium storing a game program. More specifically, the illustrative embodiments relate to a game system and a storage medium storing a game program, which allow a game to be performed among a plurality of game apparatus by means of short-range wireless communication.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One example of a conventional game system of this kind is disclosed in reference document 1 (Japanese Patent Laying-open No. 2000-126445). In the game system of the reference document 1, the state of wireless communication with another game apparatus is indicated by means of symbols, characters or patterns. For example, when communication data is received from the other game apparatus, the symbol “*” indicative of communication in process is displayed. Also, if the communication stops dead and a communication error occurs, the symbol “?” indicative of disabled communication is provided.
Additionally, document 2 (Japanese Patent Laying-open No. 2002-126353) discloses a game system in which wireless communication is carried out between a wireless controller and the main body of a game machine, and a signal strength in the wireless communication is reflected on a game display screen. In this game system, the field intensity of a received signal is detected at the main body of the game machine, and the information displayed on the screen is modified according to this received signal strength. For instance, when a player with the controller moves away from the main body of the game machine, a character displayed on the display screen comes to the fore. In this manner, modifying the information displayed on the screen in accordance with the actual movement of the player allows the game to be close to realistic experiences.
Regarding the prior art of document 1, however, the state of communication with the other game apparatus is displayed as a symbol, etc. Therefore, the game details are not varied according to the communication state, which may make it difficult to continuously attract the player's interest in this game system.
Additionally, with the prior art of document 2, the displayed information is modified according to the signal strength between the wireless controller and the main body of the game machine, that is, according to the distance between the player and the display screen. As a consequence, no change is made to the progress of the game itself, even if the distance between the player and the display screen varies, and it may thus be difficult to keep the player's interest engaged in this game system.
Besides, according to the prior art of document 2, the strength of a signal from the controller is detected, and thus it may be necessary to set up a circuit for detection of radio field intensity. Setting up this strength detecting circuit may be no special issue for the main body of a game console connected to a TV receiving set as described in the document 2, However, contemplating its application to a wireless communication game system using hand-held game machines, it may be difficult to provide a hand-held game machine with such a radio field intensity detecting circuit because there may be some limitations on the size and shape of the hand-held game machine.
The illustrative embodiments provide a novel game system and storage medium storing a game program.
In one illustrative embodiment, a game system and storage medium storing a game program makes a change to game details according to the communication state in the game system in which wireless communication is carried out.
A game system according to an illustrative embodiment is a game system including a first game apparatus and at least one second game apparatus which can carry out short-range wireless communication with one another. The first game apparatus comprises a first transmitting means, a first receiving means, a number-of-received data detecting means and a first game processing means. The second game apparatus comprises a second receiving means and a second transmitting means. In the first game apparatus, the first transmitting means transmits to the second game apparatus a predetermined number of pieces (wherein the term pieces means at least one piece) of first verification data for verifying a communication state. The first receiving means receives second verification data transmitted from the second game apparatus. The number-of-received data detecting means detects the number of the received pieces of data of second verification data received by the first receiving means. The first game processing means varies a game process according to the number of the received pieces of data. In the second game apparatus, the second receiving means receives the first verification data transmitted from the first game apparatus. The second transmitting means transmits to the first game apparatus the same number of pieces of the second verification data as those of the first verification data received by the second receiving means.
More specifically, the game system includes the first game apparatus (10: a reference numeral used for illustrative purposes.) and at least one second game apparatus (10) which can carry out short-range wireless communication with one another. In an illustrative embodiment, the first game apparatus functions as a parent apparatus and the second game apparatus functions as a child apparatus. The first transmitting means (42, 76, S3, S73) of the first game apparatus transmits to the second game apparatus a predetermined number of pieces of first verification data for verifying a communication state. In response to that, the second receiving means (42, 78, S41, S121) of the second game apparatus receives the first verification data transmitted from the first game apparatus. Then, the second transmitting means (42, 76, S43, S123) transmits to the first game apparatus the same number of pieces of the second verification data as those of the first verification data received by the second receiving means. In response to that, the first receiving means (42, 78, S5, S75) of the first game apparatus receives the second verification data transmitted from the second game apparatus. The number-of-received data detecting means (42, 80, S7, S77) detects the number of received pieces of data of the second verification data received by the first receiving means. The detected number of the received pieces of data is the number of pieces of received second verification data that has been transmitted from the child apparatus in response to the transmission of the predetermined number of pieces of first verification data from the first game apparatus. This reflects the communication state between the first game apparatus and the second game apparatus. Then, the first game processing means (42, 82, 84, 88, S13, S83, S85) varies a game process according to the number of received pieces of data.
Thus, a predetermined number of pieces of the first verification data for verifying the communication state are transmitted, the number of the received pieces of data of second verification data transmitted from the other game apparatus in response to that is detected, and then the game process is varied according to the detected number of the received pieces of data. This makes it possible to provide a novel and interesting game system in which game details are changed according to the communication state between the game apparatus.
In one illustrative embodiment, the game system includes a plurality of second game apparatus. The first game processing means changes a priority rank of communication with each of the second game apparatus according to the number of the received pieces of data.
More specifically, the first game processing means (82, S13) of the first game apparatus changes a priority rank of communication with each of the plurality of second game apparatus according to the number of the received pieces of data. Thus, if there exist a plurality of the second game apparatus communicable with the first game apparatus, the priority rank of communication with each of the second game apparatus can be changed according to the number of the received pieces of data detected in communication with each of the second game apparatus, which makes it possible to provide a highly entertaining communication game.
In one aspect, the first game apparatus further comprises a first displaying means for displaying the communication priority rank changed by the first game processing means. The first transmitting means transmits to each of the second game apparatus data on the communication priority rank changed by the first game processing means. The second game apparatus further comprises a second displaying means for displaying its communication priority rank, based on the data on communication priority rank transmitted from the first game apparatus.
More specifically, the first displaying means (42, 24, S15) of the first game apparatus displays the communication priority rank changed by the first game processing means. Also, the first transmitting means (42, 76, S19) transmits to each of the second game apparatus data on the communication priority rank changed by the first game processing means. In response to that, the second displaying means (42, 24, S47) of the second game apparatus displays its communication priority rank based on the data on communication priority rank transmitted from the first game apparatus. Therefore, by displaying on each of the game apparatus the communication priority rank based on the number of the received pieces of data, it is possible to inform the communication priority rank to the player of each of the game apparatus. This allows each player of the second game apparatus to easily know whether the communication state of his second game apparatus is good or bad in comparison with other players' second game apparatus.
In another illustrative embodiment, the first transmitting means transmits to the second game apparatus the number of the received pieces of data detected by the number-of-received data detecting means. The second game apparatus further comprises a second game processing means for varying the game process according to the number of the received pieces of data transmitted from the first game apparatus.
More specifically, the first transmitting means (42, 76, S97) of the first game apparatus transmits to the second game apparatus the number of the received pieces of data detected by the number-of-received data detecting means. In response to that, the second game processing means (42, 84, 88, S135, S143) of the second game apparatus varies the game process according to the number of the received pieces of data transmitted from the first game apparatus. Accordingly, the second game apparatus can also vary the game process according to the number of the received pieces of data detected in communication with the first game apparatus. This means that it is possible to change the game details according to the communication state between the game apparatus, thereby providing a further novel and interesting game system.
The first game apparatus may further comprise a first displaying means for displaying a game space containing at least a first player character operated by the player of the first game apparatus and a second player character operated by the player of the second game apparatus. The first game processing means changes the size of at least one of the first player character and the second player character displayed on the first displaying means, depending on the number of the received pieces of data. The second game apparatus further comprises a second displaying means for displaying a game space containing at least the first player character and the second player character. The second game processing means changes the size of at least one of the first player character and the second player character displayed on the second displaying means, depending on the number of the received pieces of data.
More specifically, the first displaying means (42, 24, 86, S99, S101) of the first game apparatus displays a game space containing at least the first player character (PC1) operated by the player of the first game apparatus and the second player character (PC2) operated by the player of the second game apparatus. Also, the first game processing means (42, 84, S83) changes the size of at least one of the first player character and the second player character, depending on the number of the received pieces of data. In addition, the second displaying means (42, 24, 86, S139, S141) of the second game apparatus displays a game space containing at least the first player character and the second player character. Moreover, the second game processing means (42, 84, S135) changes the size of at least one of the first player character and the second player character, depending on the number of the received pieces of data. Therefore, by changing the size of the player character displayed on the screen depending on the detected number of the received pieces of data, it is possible to change the game details according to the communication state.
In another illustrative embodiment, the first game processing means reduces the size of the second player character displayed on the first displaying means as the number of the received pieces of data is smaller. The second game processing means reduces the size of the first player character displayed on the second displaying means as the number of the received pieces of data is smaller.
More specifically, the first game processing means reduces the size of the second player character operated by the communication partner as the number of the received pieces of data is smaller. Also, the second game processing means reduces the size of the first player character operated by the communication partner as the number of the received pieces of data is smaller. Thus, the partner's player character is changed to a smaller size according to the detected number of the received pieces of data, which makes it possible to provide a highly interesting game in which a sense of distance between the player characters in the virtual game space varies depending on the quality of the state of communication with the game apparatus of the partner player.
In another aspect, the first game apparatus further comprises a sound outputting means for outputting a sound. The first game processing means changes sound data to be output to the sound outputting means according to the number of the received pieces of data.
More specifically, the first game apparatus further comprises a sound outputting means (28, 54) for outputting a sound. Also, the first game processing means (42, 88, S85) changes sound data to be output to the sound outputting means according to the number of the received pieces of data. Therefore, it is possible to change such a sound as BGM for the game according to the detected number of the received pieces of data. Also, the player can easily know whether the communication state of his game apparatus is good or bad from the output sound.
A storage medium storing a game program according to one illustrative embodiment is a storage medium storing a game program to be executed by a game apparatus in a game system that includes a plurality of game apparatus capable of carrying out short-range wireless communication with one another and in which one of the game apparatus functions as a parent apparatus and at least one other game apparatus functions as a child apparatus. The game program in this storage medium causes a processor of the game apparatus functioning as a parent apparatus to perform a first transmitting step, a first receiving step, a number-of-received data detecting step, and a first game processing step. In the first transmitting step, a predetermined number of pieces of first verification data for verifying a communication state are transmitted to the child apparatus. In the first receiving step, second verification data transmitted from the child apparatus is received. In the number-of-received data detecting step, the number of the received pieces of data of second verification data received in the first receiving step is detected. In the first game processing step, the game process is varied according to the number of the received pieces of data. The game program in this storage medium also causes a processor of the game apparatus functioning as a child apparatus to perform a second receiving step and a second transmitting step. In the second receiving step, the first verification data transmitted from the parent apparatus is received. In the second transmitting step, the same number of pieces of the second verification data as those of the first verification data received in the second receiving step are transmitted to the parent apparatus.
As well as the above mentioned game system, this storage medium storing a game program makes it possible to provide a novel and interesting game in which the game details are changed according to the state of communication between the game apparatus.
According to an illustrative embodiment, the number of the received pieces of verification data transmitted from the other game apparatus according to the transmission of a predetermined number of the pieces of verification data is detected, and the game process is varied according to the detected number of the received pieces of data. This makes it possible to change the game details according to the communication state between the game apparatus in the game system in which wireless communication is carried out, thereby providing a novel and interesting game.
The above described aspects the illustrative embodiments will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the illustrative embodiments when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.